Gatineau residents concerned access to healthcare won’t improve, despite province’s new deal with doctors

Family doctors and the Quebec government reached a new agreement, but some residents worry it’s too little, too late. CTV’s Kimberley Johnson reports.

The Quebec government says a new deal it’s reached with family doctors in the province will get hundreds of thousands of patients access to a family physician, but some Gatineau residents worry their access to healthcare won’t improve.

Melissa Ndi says she doesn’t have a family doctor and travels to great lengths to see a physician when she needs to.

“Whenever I need to see a doctor I go on the Ontario side,” she says. “I never go to on the Quebec side, just simply because of the waiting time.”

Quebec doctors have overwhelmingly accepted a tentative agreement with the provincial government that aims to connect 500,000 patients with a doctor by June. It also removes several measures of the controversial “Bill 2,” including one that connected compensation to the number of patients seen.

Bill 2 generated pushback from many doctors in Quebec and hundreds applied to leave the province.

Despite the push to get Quebec resident like Ndi a new doctor, the Gatineau resident says she remains skeptical that her situation will change.

“I’m hopeful that, yes, I might get a personal doctor, but at the end of the day, I’m still kind of cognizant of the fact that there’s not enough doctors to go around.”

Gatineau resident Edward Blanco-Steger says his wife and daughters’ doctor already announced they would be leaving the province.

“My wife and my kids’ doctor, she’s done at the end of February, and she’s (going) to Ontario,” he says.

He says the new deal is seemingly too little too late, and his family has medical needs that require ongoing care.

“In my daughter’s case, she was in tears. It’s one more emotional thing she doesn’t need in her life, you know? And my wife also. It’s just one more thing we don’t need.”

On Friday, Dr. Marc-Andre Amyot, the president of the Quebec Federation of General Practitioner, told CTV News the new deal was a victory for physicians and patients.

Amyot says the new deal will allow doctors to decide on their patient loads and lift the penalties on doctors to increase it. It will also create financial incentives for family doctors to reach the 500,000 patients target.

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